MaddLlama
Obstructor of justice
I don't think that one is better or more realistic than the other, but polytheism sidesteps the common hang-up of "the problem of evil", whereas monotheism has grappled with this question for centuries (in that, people have asked this quesion for ages, and a universally satisfactory explanation has never been found).
Polytheism has it's own problem though, and what I like to think of as the opposite problem - the problem of love. At least in ancient times when these gods were first worshipped, the gods did not usually "love" the mortals, in the same way we would think of monotheistic gods. Monotheistic gods seem to always have this concept of unconditional love, whereas more often the love between a god and a mortal in Polytheistic systems was about sexual love, or romantic love. But they do not "love all of creation".
So, while polytheism sidesteps the question, monotheism is a system that more easily allows a person to have a "personal relationship" with god.
Polytheism has it's own problem though, and what I like to think of as the opposite problem - the problem of love. At least in ancient times when these gods were first worshipped, the gods did not usually "love" the mortals, in the same way we would think of monotheistic gods. Monotheistic gods seem to always have this concept of unconditional love, whereas more often the love between a god and a mortal in Polytheistic systems was about sexual love, or romantic love. But they do not "love all of creation".
So, while polytheism sidesteps the question, monotheism is a system that more easily allows a person to have a "personal relationship" with god.